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Relativism and Human Rights RELATIVISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Can they Coexist? Contributions to a seminar at Warrane College University of New South Wales 7 April 2007 Warrane College is an affiliated residential college for men at The University of New South Wales. It encourages students to prepare for their future roles in society by promoting academic excellence, high personal standards and a spirit of service in a friendly environment. Lectures, seminars, educational programs, work-camps in underdeveloped societies, and local community service projects to serve both the University and the wider community, are sponsored by the College. Opus Dei, a Prelature of the Catholic Church, is responsible for the spiritual care of the College. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Warrane College Cover design by Simon Brushfield ISBN 0 980 2902 1 X Published by Warrane College, PO Box 123, Kensington, NSW, 1465, Australia © Warrane College, Sydney, Australia October 2007 ii RELATIVISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS: Can they Coexist? Edited by Phillip Elias Assistant Dean (Studies), Warrane College Warrane College Monograph No.14 iii WARRANE MONOGRAPHS 1. Martins J F & Saunders JB (eds), Legalising Drugs: Deliverance or Deception? [ISBN 0 7334 0159 7] 2. Martins J F & Walsh W (eds), Watching the Watchdog: Can the Media Regulate Itself? [ISBN 0 7334 0325 5] 3. Birrell PC & Martins JF (eds), Newman and the Nature of a University. [ISBN 0 7334 0328 X] 4. West WJ (ed), Econospeak: The Reporting of Economics in the Media. [ISBN 0 7334 1239 4] 5. West WJ (ed), Media Leaks: Dilemmas of Confidentiality and Disclosure. [ISBN 0 7334 1241 6] 6. West WJ (ed), Politicians and the Media. [ISBN 0 7334 1244 0] 7. Slater MB (ed), Towards a New Culture of Life: The Challenge of Evangelium Vitae [ISBN 0 7334 1300 5] 8. Cook M, Paris A & Shannon AG (eds), Work and Human Values [ISBN 0 975 08470 4] 9. Turnbull, Malcolm, Is the West Dying Out? Family, Fertility and Survival [ISBN 0 975 0847 1 2] 10. Sully, The Hon Mr Justice Brian, Drifting toward Upheaval: Current Agitation for Constitutional Change [ISBN 0 975 0847 2 0] 11. Barcan, A., Fitzgerald, M., Franklin, J. & Spurr, B., Postmodernism in Education [ISBN 0 975 0847 3 9] 12. Heydon, The Honourable Justice Dyson, The Gaining and Losing of National Independence [ISBN 0 975 0847 4 71] 13. Spigelman, The Honourable J.J., Shanghai and the West: First Contact [ISBN 0 980 2902 0 1] iv CONTENTS Foreword Phillip vii Elias Relativism, Subjectivism and Human Tony 1 Rights Shannon Historical Notions of Rights and John 6 Freedom Lamont Human Dignity, Relativism and Joseph 16 Euthanasia Law Azize Prudential Relativism and the Roger 56 Problem of Ignorance Sandall Remote Aboriginal Communities: Jenness 65 Human rights abuses and why they Warin remain hidden with James Franklin v vi FOREWORD Phillip Elias Assistant Dean (Studies), Warrane College Exactly 60 years have passed since the drafting of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme of human rights still occupies a significant corner of the public square, not least because, in many places, human rights are still abused. Australia is not an exception. Earlier this year, a graphic Northern Territory Board of Inquiry report found that Central Australian communities are being poisoned by toxic levels of child sexual abuse. Amidst the frantic search for a cause some have recognised the role of moral relativism in the crisis. In the names of self-determination and value-free government, Central Australian communities have been left ill-equipped to face the challenges to personal responsibility that modern freedoms entail. The phrase ‘human rights abuse’ conjures up images of a dark and systematic power structure- usually a government- exploiting a particular subpopulation. It is self-evident that a breach of human rights involves some differential of power. It is less evident, but true nevertheless, that an abrogation can occur in vii broad day, in the light of freedom, of self-determination, of empowerment. If morality is relative, autonomy rules absolutely. The Warrane College Easter Seminar took for its theme: Relativism and Human Rights: Can they Coexist? The tensions between human rights and relativism were set out as follows: Human rights are taken for granted in the West. But we also exalt autonomy and the ‘right’ to be free from the moral constraints of others. Given the latter, can we really pretend to safeguard the human rights of other people? Can we really talk about them at all? Professor Tony Shannon’s paper points out not just the absurdity but in fact the dangers of moral relativism. The best 'cure' for the threat of, for instance, AIDS, is first of all an unmuddled approach to morality. Dr. John Lamont, of the Catholic Institute of Sydney, writes on ‘Historical Notions of Rights and Freedom.’ He outlines the history of the concept of rights, emphasizing the dependency of subjective or personal rights on the more fundamental concept of objective right. Dr. Lamont specifically mentioned human dignity as a facet of objective right, and this is the particular focus of Dr. Joseph Azize, lecturer in law at the University of Technology, Sydney. Dr. Azize’s paper demonstrates the need to discuss dignity in a universalist sense- anything less would be an injustice. The paper then highlights importance of human dignity in debates over euthanasia legislation in Australia. viii Roger Sandall, anthropologist and a regular contributor to Quadrant magazine, writes on 'Prudential Relativism and the Problem of Ignorance'. Mr. Sandall’s entertaining and thought provoking paper considers those situations in which ignorance can temporarily suspend the need for moral decisiveness. His essential argument, however, is that tolerance and cultural allowances are not synonymous with moral relativism. The booklet concludes with a paper by Jenness Warin, a registered nurse who has worked extensively in education in remote Australian communities. Ms. Warin emphasised that many of the issues affecting indigenous Australians are attributable to a 'values-free' approach to their government. Her words take on particular significance in the light of recent administrative upheavals in remote regions. Delivered three months before the public outcry, they are not only timely; they are prescient. ix x Relativism, Subjectivism & Human Rights Professor Tony Shannon AM Master, Warrane College Introduction In welcoming you to Warrane College, I cannot resist a few comments on the theme of your seminar. A common saying is that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”: that is, beauty is subjective. However, try telling that to painters or composers when you say that you think that their paintings or music are no good! Yet the accepted wisdom of the age is that truth, goodness and beauty are all subjective and relative. Relativism Relativism considers ideas and values to be conditioned by time and place, so that individuals’ attitudes determine their moral philosophy, independently of both the rights of others and the unwritten law of human nature, the natural moral law. Thus, for John Dewey and his pragmatism which has so influenced Australian education, truth was “warranted assertability” (cf. Westbrook, 1991: 130-137). Nowhere is this seen more than when conscience is invoked. In the words of Bishop Anthony Fisher op: “by the 1960s it [conscience] meant something like a strong feeling, intuition or sincere opinion”. My 1 opinions that is, because the opinions of others count for less, especially the opinions of Popes! Thus Pope John Paul II was consistently condemned for not permitting condoms despite widespread promiscuity in HIV/AIDS affected regions of Africa. As though those who ignore one aspects of the Church’s moral teaching are going to worry about another. As though there is no scientific evidence about the ineffectiveness of condoms; as though there is no sociological evidence that they actually encourage promiscuity. The Natural Moral Law All ‘moral’ laws would actually be arbitrary if they had no foundation in the natural moral law. They might be based on convention or force or prejudice, or even goodwill, and might seem to be binding, but there could be no real obligation to obey them. On the other, hand when a law is seen to be bound up with human nature, and therefore to be reasonable, it carries an inherent obligation. And moreover, when we see its reasonableness, it is relatively easier to accept than when it seems to be arbitrary. The consequences of flouting the natural moral law are real, even if, at times, we do not want to see them. Even to mention the natural law is seen to be simplistic. A Medical Example An example from medicine might help. Kuru (or laughing sickness or shaking death) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy first 2 described in 1957. It occurred as an epidemic fatal disease confined to the inhabitants of several adjacent valleys in the remote eastern highlands of Papua New Guinea. They had a stone-age-like culture in which the women practised ritual endocannibalism (cannibalism of their deceased relatives). The asymptomatic incubation period of the disease was between four and thirty years. Because children stayed with the mother (males too until they were initiated), they too became infected. There are weird and ominous similarities between the epidemiology of AIDS and of kuru. Both diseases were detected only because of their concentration in time and place. Both were eventually correlated with patterns of social behaviour. Both AIDS and kuru are slow infections, caused by viruses of types that were not known to infect humans before epidemics gradually unfolded. Both diseases first became manifest in communities in which the associated social behaviour had become elaborate cults within minority groups: cults which historically most societies have abhorred.
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